I'm looking at buying an Octavia scout.

One is a 2010 model costing £5500 with nearly 100k miles on the clock. It's very tidy and straight.

The other is an ex NHS doctor car on a 19 plate with 46k miles on the clock costing £9999. As it has been effectively an emergency car, it has a few holes in panels where a radio has been and other holes in the boot panels for heaven knows what.

Which one would you buy?

I think I'm going to toss a coin.

hi there regarding the drs car does it have holes drilled in the exterior body panels etc like a emergency response vehicle roof mounted lights etc ? if so i would stay away . You usually find that half a dozen electricians have been at it will god knows what ever wiring .. The other car maybe older but hasnt been messed about with

I’ve moved this to mk3, as I think the questions are mostly about the 2019 car.

Is there a proper full Service History for the Ex NHS car? At least 2 Haldex Services, Annual or sooner oil changes, brake fluid done at least twice etc etc.

If the electrics haven't been too molested I'd go for the 2019 car. It'll have been regularly serviced and the mileage will be low enough such that there are unlikely to be issues such as prop shaft doughnuts on the way out etc.

6 hours ago, cwt said:

I'm looking at buying an Octavia scout.

One is a 2010 model costing £5500 with nearly 100k miles on the clock. It's very tidy and straight.

The other is an ex NHS doctor car on a 19 plate with 46k miles on the clock costing £9999. As it has been effectively an emergency car, it has a few holes in panels where a radio has been and other holes in the boot panels for heaven knows what.

Which one would you buy?

I think I'm going to toss a coin.

Any sort of emergency vehicle is floored from the moment it is started, be it in summer or winter, left idling for hours and, as has been said, likely to have been messed with. No ex-emergency car is a 'good' buy, compared to anything else. Yes, they have been serviced properly and maintained, but they have had hard lives.

That being said, is the 2010 car a TDI or TSI? I'd take the 2019 car any day over a TDI that has done 6k miles a year. On paper, at least, a 2019 car on 46k miles is very attractive.

For everyone's viewing pleasure -

2010 Scout

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202608125020633?sort=relevance&twcs=true&searchId=f0d3de8b-2669-43ae-a4e8-fb63584a45c2&aggregatedTrim=Scout&make=Skoda&model=Octavia&page=1&postcode=cr08pn&year-from=2010&year-to=2011&advertising-location=at_cars&fromsra=&backLinkQueryParams=aggregatedTrim%3DScout%26channel%3Dcars%26make%3DSkoda%26model%3DOctavia%26postcode%3Dcr08pn%26sort%3Drelevance%26year-from%3D2010%26year-to%3D2011%26flrfc%3D1&calc-deposit=550&calc-term=48&calc-mileage=10000&calc-selected-product=PCP

2019 Scout

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202608064875987?sort=relevance&searchId=19d5eb1f-705c-4820-b878-5feb912bb3f5&aggregatedTrim=Scout&make=Skoda&model=Octavia&page=1&postcode=cr08pn&year-from=2019&advertising-location=at_cars&fromsra=&backLinkQueryParams=aggregatedTrim%3DScout%26channel%3Dcars%26make%3DSkoda%26model%3DOctavia%26postcode%3Dcr08pn%26sort%3Drelevance%26year-from%3D2019%26flrfc%3D1&calc-deposit=1000&calc-term=48&calc-mileage=10000&calc-selected-product=HP

Here is the 2019 car dressed up -

Edited 3 hours ago3 hr by OccyVRS

Here's a video of its twin - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73jYDqM6RaQ

And potentially it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-Mw3axLEcs

I mean... at least you don't have to worry about the DPF.

Edited 3 hours ago3 hr by OccyVRS